dence that drew Mills Richardson to
her. Mills wrote books and was the editor of a small magazine. He came
to board with Mary's mother because of the quiet neighborhood. He was
rather handsome in a dark slender fashion. He had the instincts of a
poet, and he was not in the least practical. He needed a prop to lean
on, and Mary gradually became the prop.

She was teaching by that time, but she helped her mother with the
boarders. When Mills came in late at night she would have something for
him in the dining-room--oysters or a club sandwich or a pot of
coffee--and she and her mother and Mills would have a cozy time of it.
In due season Mills asked her to marry him, and his dreams had to do
with increased snugness and with shelter from the outside world.

They had been engaged three months when Dulcie came home from college.
There was nothing independent or practical about Dulcie. She was a real
romantic lady, and she appealed to Mills on the aesthetic side. He saw
her first in church with the light shining on her from a stained-glass
window. In the middle of that same week Mrs. Cowan gave a garden party
as a home-coming celebration for her daughter. Dulcie wore embroidered
white and a floppy hat, and her eyes when she talked to Mills were
worshipful.

He found himself swayed at last by a grand passion. He thought of Dulcie
by day and dreamed of her by night. Then he met her by accident one
afternoon on Connecticut Avenue, and they walked down together to the
Speedway, where the willows were blowing in the wind and the water was
ruffled; and there with the shining city back of them and the Virginia
hills ahead, Mills, flaming, declared his passion, and Dulcie,
trembling, confessed that she too cared.

Mills grew tragic: "Oh, my beloved, have you come too late?"

Dulcie had not heard of his engagement to Mary. Mills told her, and that
settled it. She had very decided ideas on such matters. A man had no
right to fall in love with two women. If such a thing happened, there
was only one way out of it. He had given his promise and he must keep
it. He begged, but could not shake her. She cared a great deal, but she
would not take him away from Mary.

Mary knew nothing of what had occurred; she thought that Mills was
working too hard. She was working hard herself, but she was very happy.
She had a hope chest and sat up sewing late o' nights.

Before Mary and Mills were married Dulcie's mother died, and Dulcie went
abroad